Oscars ‘14: Predictions, part one - Technical

Sunday is Oscar Night, which means it's time for The Cricket to unveil his predictions for the winners of the 86th annual Academy Awards.

This isn't an easy job — and it's been a couple of up and down years for The Cricket. Last year, he picked 16 out of 24 correct, but the year before he got 19 out of 24 right.

Today, The Cricket will make his picks in the five technical categories. Tuesday, it's the craft categories (cinematography, production design, costumes and music). On Wednesday, it's the short-film categories (animated, documentary and live-action). On Thursday, it's the specialty features (animated, documentary and foreign-language). And on Friday, both here on the blog and in the Tribune's print edition, you can read The Cricket's predictions in the major categories: Best Picture, directing, screenwriting (original and adapted) and the four acting categories.

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Join The Cricket on Twitter (@moviecricket) during Sunday's Oscar ceremony. (The ceremony starts at 6:30 p.m. Mountain time, though the pre-show red carpet stuff starts at 5 p.m. on ABC, and at 3:30 p.m. on E!) The Cricket also will be taking part in a live-chat with his fellow critics from Digital First Media all night (details to follow).

Who will win • Here's something insiders know: The Film Editing category is often an indicator of Best Picture, which this year means it's a two-movie race between the high-tech wizardry of "Gravity" and the traditional style of "12 Years a Slave." The Academy will stick with the traditional, and give it to Joe Walker for "12 Years a Slave."

Who should win • The work by Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger on "Gravity" is so seamless, intercutting acting with computer animation, that it doesn't look like editing. That's an achievement worthy of an Oscar.

Who will win • Almost by default, it's going to "Dallas Buyers Club," because it's hard to imagine Academy voters making it possible to refer to "the Oscar-winning 'Bad Grandpa'" or "the Oscar-winning 'The Lone Ranger'".

Who should win • Thankfully, the work Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews did for "Dallas Buyers Club," making the slimmed-down Matthew McConaughey look even more gaunt — and made Jared Leto's transgender character quite convincing.